Meta

Nigerian magazine Yes! International has placed on-line its recent interview with evangelist Helen Ukpabio, who is known for her teachings about the dangers of child witches. The interview received some attention earlier this month, as it includes an attack on Pastor T.B. Joshua, whom she accuses of working with demons.

In recent times, I have been enjoying a lot of victories over those who accused me of one thing or the other. First, it was the Censor’s Board that took me to court and for four years they made me to stand trial as an accused or as a criminal. But at the end God saw me through. I was discharged and acquitted. I was not even cross-examined or anything. While I was still pondering on what to do next, the atheists came in with this heated blackmail and again, God gave me victory.

The tagline for this event was “Do you know that God has Vindicated us (Liberty) from a Global Scandal of Child Witch Abuses which was heavily smeared at us?”, and Yes! tells us that

The one-week programme which was immensely successful attracted leading men of God like Bishop N.E Moses

Moses, it should be recalled, “consecrated” Ukpabio as an “Apostle” in 2009, and other clerics participated in the event. Moses praised members of her church for invading a conference on child-witch stigmatisation, and declared that: “The enemy is attacking! Witches attacking! Wizards attacking! Atheists attacking!”

Ukpabio claims that criticism of her teachings about child witches and attempts to rescue children accused of witchcraft amount to an atheist conspiracy, and it seems that the “Festival” was also a book-launch event:

The book is about my encounter with the atheists who claimed they were fighting for child witchcraft that never existed. They were fighting for a non-existing cause and made noise and generated money from the world. I marvel at the way people can easily use their demonic wisdom to kill, murder and slander another person to be brought forward and to be able to make it. So, I had to write the truth and let people see the truth. So, the book is very rich by way of its exposition on the individuals involved. Every chapter is about an individual and the extent the person was involved in the child witchcraft saga.

I’ve seen part of this book, which is entitled Akwa Ibom State Child-Witch Scam: The Wholesome Truth and published by Kings View Publishing House of Calabar (tagline: “Forever Excellent”) . An entire chapter (Chapter 9) is devoted to none other than me, and consists of material taken from this blog interspersed with claims about an atheist conspiracy supposedly involving me and a number of other persons (in particular, Leo Igwe). The book even includes the suggestion that I may be murderer, since I am supposed to have had a girlfriend from university days who has supposedly disappeared. The whole story is of course completely made up, but apparently Ukpabio has no fear of being punished by God for breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

The Yes! interview also touches on the subject of the recent deaths of three of Ukpabio’s brothers in violent circumstances, the shock of which also caused a sister to pass away. I discussed this incident here. Ukpabio explains that:

…in my own family, people don’t die young. The youngest person that has ever died in my family died at 115. Yes, my father’s elder brother. They don’t die at 90, they don’t die at 100. They must put something on top. My father’s eldest sister died at 132 years; from the same father but different mother. So, it is the first time our family, our compound is experiencing untimely deaths and four people at a go.

The later part of the interview is concerned with theological questions. These include the problem of visions given by demons:

So, when somebody is seeing from the scope of a witchcraft realm called Tam and Oma. Tam and Oma are like the demonic springboards that transmit visions to their agents.

The dangers of “Adonai” demons:

Adonai is a group of demons that if you serve them, they can give you money. They only demand worship, they want to be worshipped like God and most preachers, that is what they are doing.

The age of the universe:

If God had created this world and this world was up to two hundred and something million years before human beings came to inhabit it, that God that has been there, what haste is He in to come and destroy a world of 7000 years? This world is not older than 7000 years. In fact, this is the 7000th year we are entering.

And the difference between paradise and heaven:

There is heaven; the heaven of God. But that is not where the Christian goes when he dies. He goes to paradise. From paradise he will be raptured if the trumpet sounds. The dead in Christ shall rise first. That’s from paradise.

Batholomew, u are nothing but a failure. your attacks on Helen upkabio has been on the grounds that she has exposed your plans of trying to penetrate African
countries with atheism.
we know how foolish you are in spreading false rumors on internet and we know your network is made up of kelli stowe, mcveigh, mags gavan, joost van der valk, gary foxcroft and a bunch of thieves.

be rest assure that as long as God continues to reign in heaven, on earth and beneath the earth, you are a failure and will keep failing until you perish

i have read Ukpabio’s book on akwa ibom state child witch scam and i believe every bit of its exposition. it is indeed the wholesome truth. thank God for using Apostle Helen Ukpabio to expose these bunch of scammers.

My Book Reviews

Note on Attacks

Anyone who comments on current affairs on-line risks being smeared by attack sites and/or abusive Tweets. This is particularly so if one chooses to challenge dishonesty or other kinds of reprehensible behaviour.

As a result of making a stand in a few particular instances, I have become the focus of a number of such attacks. Those who have targeted me include: a Nigerian evangelist who believes in "child witches"; former activists with the EDL; a man with a long history of bad debt and grandiosity; a sockpuppeting tabloid journalist; and a self-serving "celebrity" MP who deploys smears to discourage scrutiny.

The bad faith of such sites and Tweets ought to be self-evident. However, any readers interested in the true background can read this and this.